Once upon a time and not so long ago, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. One could easily tell the two apart.
Then WordPress came along and changed everything. Now, it’s becoming more and more difficult to tell the difference between blogs and websites. Not so much in terms of what the sites are being used for, but in terms of website design and also being able to tell what’s under the surface.
(It’s Getting Harder To Tell Websites Built With Web Development Tools Vs ‘Blogging’ Software!)
For website owners, understanding the difference between a CMS tool like WordPress and other website-building software is huge, not so much in terms of the technical differences, but more importantly, in terms of the things that the majority of website owners are deeply concerned with, such as web development costs, ease of use, ability to keep the site up-to-date, managing content, etc.
Think about this …
Which of these options would you choose?
A) An eye-catching, professional-looking website that turns out to be quite expensive to build, or
B) The same eye-catching, professional-looking site, but at a cost that turns out to be significantly less than the cost of getting option ”A” built.
If you selected option ”B” above, then you need to learn more about the benefits of using WordPress, why WordPress can be used to create an eye-catching website that could turn out to be much less expensive to build than websites which use traditional website editing applications … and how to tell these two types apart!
WordPress is the world’s leading online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a flexible and powerful CMS suitable for businesses on a budget.
Whether your reason for having a website is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a newbie with no knowledge of coding to use, yet it offers many helpful add-ons that make your web presence more effective in terms of getting your content published, promoting visitor interaction, generating business leads and sales, scalability, etc.
With almost one in every five websites around the world currently being powered by WordPress, chances are that if you already own a website, your site is also driven by WordPress.
And if you don’t have a website yet, or are considering getting a website built, then wouldn’t it be great to be able to show your web developer an existing site with the design and layout that you like, know that it was built with WordPress and that you can, therefore, get something similarly built for your business for very little cost?
Is My Site WordPress?
Do you need to know if a website is powered by WordPress? Maybe you’ve come to our site because you’ve read about all of the great benefits and advantages of using WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site runs on WordPress, or some other content management system.
Also, have you ever looked at a competitor’s website and wondered what they’re doing to try and get better results online?
Knowing if your competitor’s site is built with WordPress can tell you a few things about their strategies and methods, such as what themes or plugins they are using.
Here are a number of ways to tell if sites are built using WordPress:
View The Page Source Code
If you know how to view the source code of a web page (e.g. Firefox Menu > Web Developer > Page Source if using Firefox, or Google Menu > More Tools > View Source if using Google Chrome), you can look for a tell-tale footprint that the site was built using WordPress …
(View your web page source code in the Firefox web browser)
Let’s say that you are surfing the web and you come across a website that you like, and you would like to know if the site uses WordPress …
First, bring up the site’s source code on your screen, using the methods described above.
In the source code, you can search for “wp-content” either manually …
Or use your browser’s “Find” function …
(Use Firefox’s ‘Find’ function)
This will tell you if the site runs on WordPress or not.
Note: If you do not locate “wp-content” in the source code, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you are not looking at a WordPress site.
There are other ways to find out if a site runs on WordPress, as we will soon be discussing.
As the point of this article is to try and help non-technical users, however, we have listed below a number of easier methods you can use to check if your web site is built with WordPress other than looking through the source code.
Just Ask Your Website Developer
While this may seem like the logical thing to do, a number of web development companies, for whatever reason, may build their clients a website and not tell them it’s been built with WordPress.
If you have an existing website and you’re not sure what CMS application is driving it, just ask your web developer or whoever built your site if it runs on WordPress.
That was simple, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t reach your webmaster, or what if you’ve come across a website that you really like while surfing the net late at night and want to know if it was built with WordPress?
Check Below Footer
If the site uses a WP theme and the web them template has not been customized, you will typically find a “Proudly powered by WordPress” message displayed at the bottom of the site …
(Powered by WordPress – site footer)
If these simple methods haven’t helped you, here are some other ways of telling whether a site was built using WordPress or not …
Tools That Tell You If A Website Is Built With WordPress
Here are a some sites that can tell you if a particular website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WordPress? – WP Site Checking Tool
(Is It WP – WordPress Checker)
Is It WP? is a free online tool that tells you if a website uses WordPress or not.
Using this site is super easy. Just type the URL of the website into the search field and click the button.
It will then go and search through the page code on the URL and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, which version of WordPress it is currently using …
If the web site was not built using WordPress, you will see a message similar to the one below …
To use this tool, go here:
Advanced WP Theme Checker by Satori
(WordPress Theme Detector)
WordPress Theme Detector by Satori Studio is a free tool that can help determine whether or not a website uses WordPress as its CMS engine; it will also tell you which theme the site is using and provide a link to the theme’s official page.
To use this tool, paste the URL of a web page (it doesn’t have to be the home page) into the ‘Enter website URL’ field and click on the ‘What WordPress theme is that?’ button …
(Enter website URL and click the button)
The Theme Detector will automatically scan the website and output its theme information …
(WordPress Theme Detector displays theme results)
If a website is built with WordPress but the theme is too customized to contain any traces of its origins, the Detector will still let you know it’s a WP site by outputting a message on the right.
(Modified WordPress theme message)
If the website is not using WordPress at all, the tool will also let you know …
(This website is not WordPress)
You can try the Detector yourself by visiting this link:
Wappalyzer – Browser Extension (Firefox / Chrome)
(Wappalyzer – Browser Add-On (Firefox / Chrome))
If you browse the net using either Firefox or Google Chrome and want to be able to instantly tell if the sites that you are visiting are WordPress-driven, then Wappalyzer is a useful add-on for your web browser.
Wappalyzer tells you what software is installed on the sites you are visiting.
According to their website …
“Wappalyzer is a browser extension that uncovers the technologies used on websites. It detects content management systems, eCommerce platforms, web servers, JavaScript frameworks, analytics tools and many more.”
Wappalyzer is also a very easy web browser add-on to install and use.
Once you have installed Wappalyzer on your browser, icons will display in your web browser menu, next to the site URL allowing you to see which technologies are being used by the sites you are visiting …
If the WordPress icon shows up on your browser menu (as shown in the screenshot above), then the site uses WordPress.
(This site is powered by WordPress!)
Visit the Wappalyzer extension site here:
SpyBar
(SpyBar – Browser Addon For WordPress)
SpyBar is a browser addon that lets you ‘reverse engineer’ any WordPress site you visit and see which WordPress plugins and themes are being used, right inside your web browser …
(SpyBar – Discover WordPress Plugins And Themes Used By Your Competitors)
SpyBar can be installed as a browser extension on Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox and is compatible with PC and Mac.
To download or learn more about SpyBar, visit the site below:
Plugin Sniper
(Plugin Sniper – Find out what plugins a WordPress site is using)
Plugin Sniper lets you find out what plugins a WordPress site is using. This is a useful tool if you want to know what WordPress plugins are being used by your competitors.
Plugin Sniper is also a useful tool for researching what kinds of plugins businesses in certain niches are using …
(Search WordPress sites by categories and location)
To download or learn more about Plugin Sniper, visit the site below:
I hope you have found this the information in this tutorial useful.
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